A scheming mind

Nobody knew why the third Hokage refused to move, but Itachi and Fugaku were still on guard, even if they didn't show it.

"Tsunade sama, please get a hold of yourself, Sato sama is bleeding out."

Fugaku glanced at the motionless third Hokage, and walked upto Tsunade with a frown, he quickly got Sato out of her grip, and pressed the wound to stop the bleeding.

"I.. I.. can't.. there's blood.."

Tsunade, still trembling, pointed towards the blood, this made Fugaku frown, he didn't know that Tsunade, the best medical ninja around, was scared of blood.

"I see, but we have no time to waste, Sato sama has lost too much blood."

"Tsunade sama, please don't resist."

Fugaku looked Tsunade in the eye and his Mangekyo Sharingan spun, Tsunade's whole world also spun with these spinning Mangekyo.

"I.. I can move again."

A few seconds later, the spinning world stopped, and Tsunade stopped trembling with it.

To Hiruzen, it looked like Fugaku got rid of Tsunade's hemophobia, but Fugaku didn't do that, he did only one thing.

"It's all green, the blood is coloured green, it's like tree sap."

Tsunade exclaimed, Fugaku changed her perception of the colour red to the colour green, and just like that her hemophobia stopped.

This wasn't a permanent cure, but it was a very good temporary one.

"Sato, hold on!"

Tsunade instantly bent down and started healing Sato, it took her only a few seconds to stop the gaping wound.

"Cough cough cough"

Sato got up with a harsh cough, he greedily breathed in air after coughing harshly.

"Haaah Haaah, I almost died you bastard!"

Sato gasped for air and laughed madly inbetween each breath. He wasn't angry or scared; he seemed crazy, at least to Hiruzen.

Hiruzen stood in his place and looked around him, Itachi wasted no time and killed off the root Ninjas, Danzo was dead, even his body was gone due to the flames of Amaterasu.

Tsunade had stopped trembling, Fugaku was standing firm, Itachi was looking at him, and Sato, he was surrounded by everyone, as if they wanted to protect him.

Seeing all this, the third Hokage had an illusion, Sato Nii had done what he couldn't do in all these years, something only the first Hokage had done until now.

Sato Nii brought the Senju and Uchiha together again, somehow the representatives of both clans had teamed up, with Sato as the temporary leader.

And the weirdest part was, they had teamed up against Konoha, the Konoha which was founded by them.

"Hahaha!! Ahahaha!!!"

Sato continued laughing madly, his face mocking Hiruzen.

"You were right Itachi, he totally didn't see it coming. The Hokage missed you putting the transfer seal on me back then."

"Hokage sama~ did you really think Itachi was tapping me on the forehead for fun? No, he was putting the transfer seal on me!" ( Chapter 72, Unease )

"Neither of us trusted you or your friends from the very beginning."

"How pitiful, you both walked right into my trap, ahahaha!"

Sato's incredibly evil laughter continued for a while before slowly dying down. He wiped the tears from his eyes, stood up, and patted his blood-soaked clothes. His gentle smile returned to his face.

"What's the matter? You look like you have a lot of questions Hokage sama, ask away."

"I am in a very good mood, I might just clear all your doubts."

Hokage silently looked at Sato, when Sato was laughing his heart out, something clicked within Hiruzen's mind, he felt as if he understood the truth, he knew why Sato was so happy.

Pursing his lips Hiruzen said in a calm voice.

"Sato Nii, you planned this incident. You could have called Itachi when Danzo showed killing intent, but you waited for him to strike, you were baiting Danzo."

"You had decided to kill Danzo the minute he attacked you in the shopping district, you even asked for the book of seals on purpose."

"I was confused back then, I was wondering why you left some root Ninjas alive, now I know. You left them alive because you wanted them to pass on your words to Danzo."

Hiruzen said this with an emotionless voice, but this shocked everyone standing here.

Even Itachi was confused, he didn't know any of that, Sato sama never told him anything like this.

"What are you talking about? It was me who decided to use the transfer seal on him, I personally decided to break into this place when the seal was triggered, I wouldn't have come here otherwise."

Hiruzen didn't get angry when Itachi called him out, he looked at Itachi with a small smile, then sighed lightly.

"You are still young Itachi, you have a lot to learn, just because Sato didn't tell you, dosen't mean you weren't doing what he wanted you to do."

"Sato kun, you are a pretty scary guy, you control things without directly controlling anyone."

Hiruzen looked at Tsunade and Fugaku when saying this, he was confident, as if he had figured out Sato's nature.

"Everyone around you has different personalities, but you, you put them in situations where they naturally end up working for you."

"You insight into people's hearts is unexpectedly high, I admit defeat, I lost this fight."

Hiruzen looked at Sato with a smile, and Sato looked back at him with an emotionless face, nobody was sure what he was thinking.

Then Sato suddenly smiled back.

"Hehe, you are giving me too much credit, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Everyone here is like my family, I consider Itachi by big brother, Fugaku san my employee, and Tsunade sama is like my elder sister."

The people around Sato sighed, they realised that Hiruzen was saying all this to break their trust in each other.

They angrily glared at Hiruzen, which made him twitch his eyes, he still didn't think he was wrong, he had been a Hokage for almost all his life, he was confident he knew Sato's true nature.

Although, it was hard for anyone to take him seriously anymore, so he let it go.

"Is that so, then I was mistaken, forgive me."

Hiruzen shook his head, and Sato rubbed his chin with a smile.

"Forgive you? That depends on what Konoha can give me as compensation, I was almost killed, I am very upset."

Sato folded his arms, and said seriously.

"Despite your misunderstandings about me, I am someone who avoids bloodshed, I only have two demands, if those two demands are met, all our issues will be wiped out."

Hiruzen looked down, he was thinking about the truth in Sato's words.

"Please tell me about them."

Sato raised one finger, and said.

"I want the ownership of the Uchiha clan land, both the new clan land and the orginal clan land in the centre of Konoha."

"I want to expand my business and that is a very good spot, this will benefit us both, how about it, interested?"

Hiruzen frowned and got lost in thought, this was doable, but it was very risky, the risk was that this was hidden cloud's business, which meant hidden cloud can freely enter and exit Konoha whenever they want.

This was a massive security risk.

Yet, he was powerless to stop this, he didn't have the luxury to deny Sato, he had to accept this condition because of Danzo's failure.

Danzo was dead, he should feel sad, even then Hiruzen felt like cursing, Danzo left cleanly, but gave him a load of problems as a goodbye gift, problems which now he needed to fix.

Advanced chapters ahead on patréon

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